Bottle-disk



(No Model.) y

A. L. BERNARDIN.

BOTTLE DISK.

.Patented Dec. 30, 1890.

A WITNESSES: d!

ATTORNEYS.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE@ ALFRED L. BERNARDIN, OF EVANSVILLE, INDIANA.

BOTTLE-DISK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N o.' 443,891, dated December 30, 1890.

Application led February 9, 1889. Serial No. 299,327. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALFRED L. BEENARDIN, of Evansville, Vanderburg county, State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Bottle-Disks, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention is an improvement in the tin or other metallic disks or top plates for corks employed to fit upon the top of corks in tightly corked and wired bottles-such, for instance, as those used for beer and charged mineral waters, soft drinks, and the like. l

The invention consists in the novel construction of the disk and in the combination of parts, as will be hereinfter described, and pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of my improvement asin use on abottle, Fig. Z is a detail perspective view of the disk or top plate, and Fig. 3 is a cross-section of such plate, all of which Will be described. Fig. 4 is a detail View.

The disk A is preferably made of tin, because of the cheapness of such metal and of the ease tv th which it may be stamped into the desired shape. On its under side the disk is formed with a central protuberance or projection a, attained, preferably, by forming the .disk at its center concavo-convex by punching it properly, thus securing a cavity or concavity in the upperside of the disk and a protuberance or convex surface on the under side of such disk, the conveXity and concavity both being desirable and useful, as will be described.

The plunger by which the cork is forced into the bottle is so formed as to produce or leave a dent or depression in the upper end or top of the cork. The walls of this dent or recess are by the compression of the punch in a measure broken down, as shown in Fig. 4, and during the process of pasteurizing the cork softens, and in the absence of means to prevent it the cork would return to ll the recess; but the protuberance on the cap-plate is adapted to and fitted in the said recess, and, being approximately conical, operates with a wedging action to hold the cork tightly in the mouth of the bottle and to prevent the filling of the recess or dent. The projection or conveXit-y a fits into this dent in the cork, and the bottle is properly wired. The pressure due to the carbonio-acid gas in the bottle and that pressure developed in beer while undergoing steaming` or the pasteurizing process will bring the cork tightly up against the disk A, and the convex portion a of the disk will have a tendency to swell the cork and press it out against the neck of the bottle,

producing a tightercorkage than is otherwise accomplished. The securing-wire B, as will be seen, is passed directly over or crosses the cavity in the top of the plate A, the said cavity thereby providing a recess into which a pick or point can be inserted to bear under the wire B to break such wire, thus preventing any chipping of the mouth of the bottle in breaking the wire, as is commonly experienced when .the pickpoint is caused to bear directly against such bottle-mouth in breaking the wire.

In more particularly defining the character of t-he convexity on the under side of the capplate it may be said to be formed withinclined walls and practically in the shape of an inverted cone, such inclined Walls producing a Wedging action on the cork when the latter is pressed up against the cap, such construction operating in an eicient manner to secured the desired spreading and compression of the cork at the top of the same.

It will be seen that my invention is quite i simple, adds practically nothing to the expense of manufacturing the disks, aids in effecting tighter corkage of the bottle, and also facilitates the opening of' the same without endangering the breaking or chipping of the bottle.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Pateut, is-

The combination, substantially as herein described, of the bottle, the cork driven into the neck thereof and having in its upper end the previously-prepared recess having brokendown walls, the top plate secured upon the said cork and having in its under side the protuberance adapted to and fitted into the said opening in the cork and made approximately conical, whereby it will have a Wedging action upon the cork as the latter swells during the process of pasteurizing, and fastenings` all substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

ALFRED L. BERARDIN. Witnesses:

WILL. BowLEs, Gus. B. MANN.

ICO 

